ant farm for Truman's Aunt Farm?

[Rachel]

I want to get an ant farm while rowing Truman's Aunt Farm. Unfortunately I've already started it but the kids still want to continue with the book while we wait for the ants to arrive. We'll still have fun with the ant farm.

I bought this one today at Mardel:
http://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Milton-0...ref=pd_sbs_t_3

They also had this one and I'm considering going back to get it because it's bigger and seems less constrictive for the ants:
http://www.amazon.com/Educational-In...ef=pd_sbs_t_16

Do you have any opinions on either one?
The one I purchased has only a few reviews (although so does the other one) but they aren't great.

[CindyK]

We have 1 of those original Uncle Milton's and 2 of the Uncle Milton Big Ones. We have had them for about a year and a half. We have clear tubing running between them. My husband prefers that type to the gel because they like to feed them. They give them pieces of fruit, crumbs, worms, bugs....I would think the gel stuff would be easier and maybe look cleaner. The sand tends to start to look a bit gross after a while in my opinion. The only issue we have is that a certain 18 month old girl likes to pull the tubing out and if we don't notice the ants get out.

[Candace C]

We used a Milton one but it had gel. It worked great.

However, just a heads up, when I sent off for the ants it took MONTHS to get them. Something about they can't mail it in hot weather. Maybe now it's getting cool enough more consistently? But I had to totally give up the idea of waiting on the ants...so we just rowed it and then a few months later had some cool ants to look at.

[Rachel]

Well actually I'm not really considering the gel type on at all. It was quite a bit more than the others I had thought about. But I'm wondering if the bigger sand one would be better than the smaller than. My day is crazy today and I didnt' get up as early as I had hoped but I can still get there. I think .

[AndreaD]

Ours is the Original Milton's Ant Farm. Waiting for the Ants to arrive!

[Melanie]

We have the original Uncle Milton's Ant Farm and our ants FINALLY arrived yesterday!

I will say that I thought that the directions were a bit confusing (the ant farm came with two bags of sand, but I think the directions said to only add one bag???). Also, many of our ants still aren't moving. I don't know how long it takes for them to get moving or if they are dead.

My son is loving the one that we got so far, but I have never seen the other one.

I also wanted to add that it took a LONG time for us to get our ants, but I am thinking that what Candace said about weather is true. I did get an email from the company last week letting me know that they were going to ship the ants. That was nice.

[Heather W]

The gel was awesome. I got the National Geographic one from Target. Perfect.

[Nancy Ann]

That bigger one looks really neat, I have not seen one like that before. Only the flat smaller ones. I agree with you I think the bigger one would be less constrictive and more interesting to watch them.